In the last few weeks the six-month inquest into the deaths of Diana, Princess of Wales, and her boyfriend, Dodi Fayed, in a car crash in Paris back in 1997 finally came to an end.
The jury decided that they were unlawfully killed, laying the blame at the feet of the chauffeur, Henri Paul, who had been drinking, and the paparazzi who had recklessly pursued the princess’s car in the quest for photographs. The coroner, Lord Justice Scott Baker, said that there was ‘not a shred of evidence’ in support of Mr. Mohamed Al Fayed’s conspiracy theory that the princess and his son were actually murdered as part of an Establishment plot. But, despite the verdict of the jury, Mr. Fayed subsequently promised that his campaign to prove an under cover MI6 assassination would continue.
Obsessive ideas
While we have sympathy with a father who has lost a beloved son in tragic circumstances, Mr. Fayed has become a classic example of someone who believes what he wants to believe despite repeated investigations and in the face of all the evidence. He is obsessed with an idea (which resonates with his pride and prejudices?) and is unable to let it go.
The re-emergence of heavy shepherds
What would you think if you received a letter from your church leaders that read like this? ‘Are church members …